My Creatively Random Life

Here I am, a day late AGAIN.  But I am updating so there's that.  Packing to move children is terrible, I remember it being easier last time but I had one less kid and he was only just over a year old and had so much less stuff. Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer writing intensive that provides an opportunity for us to cheer each other on wherever we’re at in our writing—planning, drafting, or revising. This year, RSW is being hosted by  Alison Miller ,  Katy Upperman ,  Erin Funk ,  Elodie Nowodazkij , and of course,   Jamie Morrow  which is how I found it. This week's check up is looking a little better. 1.  How I did on last week’s goals: I did write a few words on my WiP, literally I think in amounted to maybe three or four sentences. :( I DID NOT find my summer hats, we took Cat to the beach and I have a nasty sunburn as sunscreen was not enough.  I also DID NOT go see Antman or schedule pick up of stuff to be donated. ...

Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer writing intensive that provides an opportunity for us to cheer each other on wherever we’re at in our writing—planning, drafting, or revising. This year, RSW is being hosted by  Alison Miller ,  Katy Upperman ,  Erin Funk ,  Elodie Nowodazkij , and of course,   Jamie Morrow  which is how I found it. This week's check up is a few days late. 1.  How I did on last week’s goals: Well...my son left for Calgary on Friday so there's that but that's about all I've achieved outside of making it to work in the last week due to migraines from the depths of a place I won't name.  And well to be honest he did most of the work on that one. 2.  My goal(s) for this week: Write something on my WiP Pack, purge and pack some more Go see Antman Unearth my summer hats. Schedule pick up of donation items 3.  A favorite line from my story OR one word/phrase that sums up what I wrote/revised: Wh...

Okay, so I skipped updating last week due to all the stress.  Yay stress! Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer writing intensive that provides an opportunity for us to cheer each other on wherever we’re at in our writing—planning, drafting, or revising. This year, RSW is being hosted by  Alison Miller ,  Katy Upperman ,  Erin Funk ,  Elodie Nowodazkij , and of course,   Jamie Morrow  which is how I found it. 1.  How I did on last week’s goals: We found a condo to move to so my writing took a bit of a backseat while I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to organize myself for the fact that moving is actually reality now and happening much sooner than I am prepared for.   I did get a couple hundred words out though and I rocked the water drinking.   2.  My goal(s) for this week: Get 1500 words on my WIP. Start purging my books drink more water get boxes for packing organize my son to go out wes...

Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer writing intensive that provides an opportunity for us to cheer each other on wherever we’re at in our writing—planning, drafting, or revising. This year, RSW is being hosted by  Alison Miller ,  Katy Upperman ,  Erin Funk ,  Elodie Nowodazkij , and of course,   Jamie Morrow  which is how I found it. This week's check up is looking a little better. 1.  How I did on last week’s goals: I got some writing done, I did not hit my goal of 1500 words but I did get a couple hundred in.  Sadly June is such a crazy month that it makes it hard to sit down and write. I did get a slight start on purging my books, or I read a book and decided that I didn't want to keep it. Then decided I needed a second set of hands if I was going to make any actual progress on purging anything in my house to move. I have drank a lot more water and feel better for it but still have migraines most days. 2.  My goal(s) for this w...

So this should have been up yesterday but I was super busy. Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer writing intensive that provides an opportunity for us to cheer each other on wherever we’re at in our writing—planning, drafting, or revising. This year, RSW is being hosted by  Alison Miller ,  Katy Upperman ,  Erin Funk ,  Elodie Nowodazkij , and of course,   Jamie Morrow  which is how I found it. 1.  How I did on last week’s goals: Recovering from being sick last week really threw me off my game but I did pull off some progress, so I am ok with that.  As long as I am moving forward.  I only hit 200 words on my WIP but I am happy with them so I am not going to beat myself up over it.   I got in one work out so that was good given that I felt like I was going to die for most of the week.  Everything else pretty much fell out of my hands with the being sick. 2.  My goal(s) for this week: Get 1500 words on my WIP. Start ...

Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer writing intensive that provides an opportunity for us to cheer each other on wherever we’re at in our writing—planning, drafting, or revising. This year, RSW is being hosted by  Alison Miller ,  Katy Upperman ,  Erin Funk ,  Elodie Nowodazkij , and of course,   Jamie Morrow  which is how I found it. Today is goal setting day!  Yay!  So here are my goals for this summer: 1) Crank out 1500 words a week on my current WIP. 2) Finish off that side project I am working on so that it's not distracting me. 3) Get up early and work out 3 times a week. 4) Get my review posts up on my blog in a timely manner. Starting next Monday I will be updating you guys every week on my progress every week. Which will follow the headlines below: 1.  How I did on last week’s goals 2.  My goal(s) for this week 3.  A favorite line from my story OR one word/phrase that sums up what I wrote/revised 4.  Th...

If you have been around here for any length of time then you know that I have a WIP (or twelve) that I am lovingly procrastinating writing.  I will make really great progress on it every once and a while but then I hit a snag (usually my own perfectionism) and I don't touch the keyboard for months. Well I am DYING to finish it and move on with my life and Jamie Morrow has provided me with just the right nudge in that direction with  Ready. Set. WRITE!  which starts on June 8. Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer writing intensive that provides an opportunity for us to cheer each other on wherever we’re at in our writing—planning, drafting, or revising. This year, RSW is being hosted by Alison Miller , Katy Upperman , Erin Funk , Elodie Nowodazkij , and of course,   Jamie Morrow which is how I found it. On June 8, you post your initial goal setting post and then there will be weekly RSW check-in posts on Mondays. Which will follow the headlines below: 1. ...

The Express Yourself Weekly Meme is hosted  Bouquet Of Books  and  Entertaining Interests .  This week's topic is: Name a few things you like to eat while writing. I am ashamed to admit it but I have a major Cheetos addiction. That and chocolate and I could survive locked away writing in a cabin for months. Well and coffee of course.

This is the bestselling original by Rayne Hall, published in 2011 and updated in 2015. Learn step-by-step how to create fictional fights which leave the reader breathless with excitement. The book gives you a six-part structure to use as blueprint for your scene. It reveals tricks how to combine fighting with dialogue, which senses to use when and how, how to create a sense of realism, and how to stir the reader's emotions. You'll decide how much violence your scene needs, what's the best location, how your heroine can get out of trouble with self-defence and how to adapt your writing style to the fast pace of the action. There are sections on female fighters, male fighters, animals and weres, psychological obstacles, battles, duels, brawls, riots and final showdowns. For the requirements of your genre, there is even advice on how to build erotic tension in a fight scene, how magicians fight, how pirates capture ships and much more. You will learn about dif...

What's Up Wednesday is a blog hop created by  Jamie Morrow  and  Erin Funk  to help writers connect.  I need a little encouragement in the area of writing these days so I felt motivated to join in and find some new friends.  The headings for the WUW posts are: WHAT I'M READING WHAT I'M WRITING (+ WRITING GOAL) WHAT WORKS FOR ME WHAT ELSE IS NEW WHAT I'M READING I am currently reading the delicious Mr. Sandman by Lyle Howard which I am enjoying very much.  I am also reading Writing Fight Scenes by Rayne Hall in the hopes of getting my current writing project unstuck. WHAT I'M WRITING (+ WRITING GOAL) I got in a whole 200 words on my WIP over the last week, which is more than I have in the last month so I think that's progress.   My goal for this week is to continue that progress and maybe add some more words if I can. WHAT WORKS FOR ME Clearly coming on here and blogging about how I was going to put some t...

I seem to have become a bit addicted to blog hops lately, it's because I love having the pressure of having a topic to write about taken off if me for the moment.  Life has sucked any and all of the creative ideas I once had out of my brain and I am stuck staring at my computer screen blankly most days.  That's where finding interesting blog hops to join and find fresh things to write about (give me a kick in the pants to write) comes in. What's Up Wednesday is a blog hop created by  Jamie Morrow  and  Erin Funk  to help writers connect.  I need a little encouragement in the area of writing these days so I felt motivated to join in and find some new friends.  The headings for the WUW posts are: WHAT I'M READING WHAT I'M WRITING (+ WRITING GOAL) WHAT WORKS FOR ME WHAT ELSE IS NEW WHAT I'M READING Right now I am reading a wonderful mish-mash of things for various reading challenges and reviews.  I have on the go War an...

The Express Yourself Weekly Meme is hosted  Bouquet Of Books  and  Entertaining Interests .  This week's topic is: What are some writerly tips you've found helpful? The most helpful writing advice to me is to write every day.  Just write.  Write anything.  A journal entry, a blog, your WIP, a short story, a poem. Whatever floats your boat. When I was my high school creative writing class our teacher would make us spend the first twenty minutes of the class writing in journals.  We could write whatever we wanted.  I still have those journals.  I used them for story outlining, character drafting, name idea listing, poetry, short stories and occasional random thoughts. The other tip that I have found works wonders is just keep writing, don't look back.  You can edit later.  I wish I had learned that one a long time ago.  My writing is getting much stronger now.  (or at least moving forward) What writing tips hav...

I have used karma  in a previous A to Z challenge but it is a topic that I have a deep connection to.  I have a deep belief that what you put out into the world does come back to you and I try to live my life as much within that philosophy as I possibly can.  I don't want to put anything out into there into the world that's going to come back to bite me in the butt.  It gets a little easier with age. The theory is that good intent and good deeds lay the way for good karma and future happiness whereas negative intent and bad deeds create bad karma and future suffering.  In some religions it is tied to the concept of future lives so what you do in this life effects what happens to you in future lives. Karma is difficult to define because there is so much diversity in the views of the different religions but it does seem to share common themes.   One of the main ones being that like deeds cause like effects, the effects of karma are not necessarily immedia...

Jesters were entertainers in medieval times who were employed to entertain nobility or entertain commoners at fairs and markets.  They employed a wide variety of skills including music, storytelling, acrobatics, juggling and song usually in a comic style.  Many jesters made jokes about people or events known to their audience.                1) Use of the word "jester" in the modern sense did not begin until the mid-16th century.                2) Jesters served both to amuse and criticize their master/mistress and their guests.                3) They enjoyed a privileged status in a noble household.                4) Jesters could give bad news that no one else dare deliver.

As a kid I had a huge fascination with Igloos and every winter without fail I would be out there in the snow trying to make one.  Sadly, my snow shelter attempts never made it very far off the ground.  I blame the fact that I live too far south but I am willing to bet if I'd tried to build one this winter I would have met with a lot more success. Igloos were predominantly constructed by people in Canada's Central Arctic and Greenland's Thule areas.  Some neat things I learned about Igloos include: 1) It's mostly outside the Inuit society that igloo refers exclusively to shelters constructed from blocks of compacted snow. 2) Snow used to build an igloo must be sound enough to cut and stacked in blocks.

The idea of Hell is one of those things that varies it's mythology from religion to religion.  In most cases it is a place of torment, punishment for the sins we commit in this world.   To me as a relatively non-religious person, looking at the world around me I find it a lot easier to believe in Hell than in Heaven. Linear religions often depict Hell as being endless whereas in cyclic religions it is a stopping place between incarnations.  Other traditions merely consider Hell as a neutral place, a housing for the dead so to speak.  Regardless I learned some neat things about some of the mythology surrounding Hell and I would like to share them with you: 1) Though the word Hell generally brings to mind visions of fire and brimstone a number of religions including Buddhism and early Christianity also include portrayals of Hell being a cold place. 2) In Ancient Egypt a guilty person was taken by a 'devourer' and would be subjected to terrifying punishment and the...

  Geisha are traditional female Japanese entertainers whose skills include classical music, dance and games.  There is so much here to be fascinated with that it's like being a kid in a candy store...you don't know where to look first.  I learned some really neat stuff and I think there are great stories there. The most interesting thing I learned is that there is (like most things) a process of apprenticeship for becoming a a geisha.  As, they progress towards becoming a full geisha their dress, hairstyle and makeup all become simpler.   Other things I learned are: 1) There were (and still are a few) male geisha. 2) Geisha must retire if they marry.   Geisha can work well into later life which is just fascinating to me as I said. 

  As part of my family history France has always held a special place in my heart as far as places I want to write about go.  My great grandparents met and fell in love in France, it was my great grandmother's home and one day I want to travel there and see where my things got started for my family. I had a very hard time even beginning to narrow down all the interesting things there are to say about France because really being that it has so much history, and is a major power center in the world how do you say only a few things?  1) The oldest traces of human life in France date from approximately 1.8 million years ago.  (that's flipping awesome) 2)  France was one of the first countries to have an environment ministry in 1971.   3) There are 47,000 religious buildings in France 94% of which are Roman Catholic.

So I discovered a few years ago that Emu farming is actually this HUGE thing here.  I'm not entirely sure why, but it's like insanely popular.  Which whatever, I love a good edible meat.  I also saw on a morning show I was watching with my mom the other day that you can feed something like 8-10 people with an Emu egg.  At which point I totally wanted to get one for home because with Ace heading into puberty he eats like a horse and could probably eat an Emu egg in a sitting.   Anyhow, other interesting things I learned about Emus are: 1) They are nomadic and may travel long distances to find food. 2) They can live between 10 and 20 years in the wild.  3) Females are a small amount larger than males and have a wider rump.  4)  They require pebbles and stones to assist in the digestion of plant material. 

 A demon is a supernatural being, often malevolent prevalent in religion, occultism, mythology, fiction and folklore.  In some religions they are considered unclean spirits often fallen angels or deceased humans.  In other religions or occultism demons are spiritual entities that may be conjured and controlled.  Like most of the things I am writing about for the challenge this year I have always had an intense fascination with, not necessarily demons themselves but with all the mythology and lore surrounding them.  I think they are a great  subject for stories much like vampires and witches because there is so much there to work with. Some interesting things about demons are: 1) The Ancient Greek word daimon refers to a spirit or divine power with no connotations of evil or malevolence.    2) Popular Hebrew mythology has demons that are believed to come from the nether world and have various physical ailments ascribed to them such as heada...